The largest entertainment company in the industry
is Time Warner Entertainment Group, located in the United States,
which owns the Warner Music Group. Warner Brothers Records began
as an attempt to control music in the film industry during the
20’s.

Sony decided to create a software manufacturing
and distribution system to complement its hardware manufacturing.
With an agreement with CBS Records, Sony created the first manufacturer
of compact discs in the United States.

Labels:

Columbia
Epic

Epic Associated Labels

Publishers:

Sony Music
Publishing
Columbia Records

Distribution
System:

Sony Distribution

Record
Club:

Half of Columbia
House record club (Warner owns the other half) CD and Tape Manufacturing
Facilities in the U.S.

PolyGram
N.V.

The history of this Dutch entertainment holding
company is long and complex. The company is 75% owned by Phillips
Electronics N.V. Their biggest mergers and acquisitions have been
with Polydor, Mercury Records, MGM Records, Phonogram, Island
Records Group, A&M Records, R&B powerhouse Motown in 1993,
and finally a 50% interest in Def Jam Records in 1994.

Labels:

Mercury
Polydor
London
Vertigo
Verve
Wing

A&M
Island
Motown
Decca
Deutche Grammophon
Phillips Classics

Also owns music
publishing, manufacturing, and the PGD or Polygram Distribution
systems.

MCA

MCA began in New York in 1924 as a talent agency.
Only after acquiring Universal Studios film facilities in 1959
did it move into publishing. The recording sector began by purchasing
labels such as U.S. Decca, Coral, and Kapp in 1962. The Japanese
Matshushita Electric Industrial Company purchased it in 1990,
but Seagramn Company, Ltd. of Canada purchased 80% of Matsushita’s
ownership in 1995.

Labels:

MCA
Geffen

DGC
GRP

*MCA also
owns record and video distribution systems and music publishing
interests.

BMG

This company began in Germany as part of the Bertelsman,
A.G. corporation. By acquiring Aristan Records in 1979, the company
took off in the United States and in 1986 the company bought RCA
Victor from General Electric. Bertelsman owns television and radio
stations around the world, film production and distribution, magazine
publishing, book publishing, and newspapers- over 200 entertainment
and publishing entities throughout the world.